Matthew Chance: Northern Alliance maintains position

CNN correspondent Matthew Chance

CNN anchor Paula Zahn talked with correspondent Matthew Chance, who is in northern Afghanistan where Northern Alliance troops have been told to maintain their defensive positions and not move toward Kabul.

PAULA ZAHN: Has anything changed?

MATTHEW CHANCE: Not so far, Paula, no. They have still got that order enforced that they have got to maintain their defensive positions. Their political leadership is saying that they are not going to be allowed to move forward into any more areas that are controlled by the Taliban.

They are saying, though, that it could be a new opportunity for them, these latest U.S.-led attacks on Afghanistan. Throughout the course of today we have been seeing some significant artillery exchanges across the two sides, and a lot of heavy machine gun fire, too.

That order is still in place even though the Taliban have taken some serious hits overnight.